Just like he has several times throughout his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) career, longtime middleweight veteran, Ronaldo Souza, was perhaps one victory away from a division title shot, only to let it slip through his fingers.
“Jacare” was expected to rematch Yoel Romero at the UFC Ft. Lauderdale event last Sat. night (April 28, 2019) on ESPN+, but instead found himself throwing hands with late replacement Jack Hermansson, who scored the unanimous decision upset after five rounds of action.
“I’m sad, because I did a great training camp for this fight,” Souza told MMA Junkie. “I trained good, but I didn’t do my best inside the Octagon. I’m bad right now. Congrats to Jack, he did a great job. I don’t have a plan right now. I come back to my home, take a vacation with my family. Tomorrow, I’m going out with my kids. I don’t know. I need to go back with my family and that’s it.”
Currently ranked No. 4, Souza (26-7, 1 NC) is likely to drop out of the Top 5 when the official rankings are updated later this week. The Brazilian, who turns 40 later this year, has not won back-to-back fights since early 2017.
As for Hermansson (20-4), still just 30, this marks the fourth straight win for the Swedish “Joker” and he’s likely to take Souza’s place in the Top 5. It will be interesting to see how the promotion matches him in the coming weeks, now that Romero and Paulo Costa seem to be on a collision course.